A New Feeling: What Kikyo and Sesshomaru Found
by Priestess Mayumi
Summary: A thrilling story that tells the story of Kikyo and Sesshomaru: their suprising past...and their startling future.
1. Chapter 1

She ran faster. No matter how far she went, it seemed she was going nowhere. She was lost…but was she lost in the forest, or lost in herself?

She remembered. The ground cracking…that girl, Kagome was falling. She winced in something she hoped was pain as she remembered Inuyasha's face…how he had screamed her name in terror…

He had once yelled her name that way…but those days were past, she decided, angrily flipping her hair out of her eyes, trying to avoid running into something.

She had shot the arrow. The purified air had caught the girl. That's when they all turned to stare at her…that's when she started to run.

Her vision was going blurry. Hadn't she passed that tree before? Once…or maybe twice? She was going in circles. Too tired to move and too tired to care. _I might as well die here._ She thought as the burning spread through the clay imitation of her once-body. _I do have the power to end my life whenever I desire don't I?_ But that was suicide: the thing that priestesses weren't even allowed to think of…whether they were dead or not. Something though…something else stopped her from doing it. Every time she thought about death, she was filled with a strange desire, something she couldn't fully explain.

She was only a clay doll, possessed by the malice and bitterness of a dead priestess. She had no identity and no feeling. She was no better than a pot made of clay. An empty pot with nothing on the inside. What should she know of anything but her quest to destroy the…thing that had killed her? What right did she have to invade the world of the living…to separate Inuyasha from the woman he…

No, she would not think of that. She would stop to rest…to purify her thoughts.

It all happened so quickly. The rock…falling over a rocky edge…falling into a dark abyss where the whole world suddenly…went…black.

He sensed her presence before he smelled it. The bones and grave-dirt smell. He was off before he heard the protest of Jaken and the cry of Rin.

What was she doing out here alone? Her aura, however faint it might be considering she was not a living creature, was troubled. Running from something…running from what?

Inuyasha's scent. Running from Inuyasha? What had he done?

He started to flare up in anger. He didn't know which of them to cast his fury on…probably the first one he saw. Why did the feelings he swore he had buried 50 years ago feel like they needed to resurface?

Inuyasha…baka…you were a fool to abandon her… 


	2. Chapter 2

Inuyasha didn't understand. What had he done?

They had been fighting a horde of demons. Kagome had slipped and fell of a cliff. As he had shouted her name, a sacred arrow had pierced through the air, purifying it. The purified air had caught Kagome like a net. When then turned around, Kikyo was there, bow in one had. The other hand was poised stiffly above her head where she had released the arrow.

Inuyasha had mouthed her name. She turned around and ran. He tried to follow, but she was too fast.

She had been too fast when she was alive too, he remembered. There was a rustling behind him. Kagome. She sat down beside them. The tension was so thick, the silence so eerie. He didn't dare speak. Her face was down. He could not tell what she was feeling.

He had tried to forget Kikyo, for Kagome's sake, but he couldn't. He wasn't sure he loved her any more, or if he just clung to her…the only memory of his past.

The darkness enveloped them. It seemed like they had spent a lifetime sitting on this hill, just staring into the distance. The darkness turned cold…and so did Inuyasha's heart.

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It had been a long, wintry night. Although the night sky was light, Kikyo carried a huge torch with her that she continued to light with oil. The torch burned an odd-smelling fragrance that made Kikyo cough.

"Why do you carry that torch, miko?"

"I fear the darkness."

"It's light out."

"Not that darkness Inuyasha…not that darkness."

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There had been something else Kikyo feared. What it was, Inuyasha would probably never know. There was one thing he did remember. That night, as they strolled through their beloved _Shitsuren _Hill, he had sensed something following them…looming over them.

What was following them that night? And why did Inuyasha feel as though whatever it had been still haunted them?


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: This goes for all the chapters I have written so far and all the chapters I will write in the future-I do not own any characters from Inuyasha (Kikyo, Sesshomaru, etc.), and although some of the events are of my creation, I do not claim any rights to the manga or anime.

Sesshomaru froze in how shockingly true his prediction had turned out to be. He found her, the _miko_, lying on the cavern-like floor of _Hirodashi_ canyon.

Her limbs were stiff and her face pale from shock, but other than that she looked exactly like the Kikyo he remembered. Her black hair had fallen loose, streamed about the rocks and small cracks in the canyon floor. Something within him melted and a feeling long forgotten but never quite vanished surfaced within him.

He stood, not speaking or moving, above her, lost in a nostalgic trance. Partly unaware of what he was doing, he knelt down on the rock ground and placed his hand firmly on her shoulder. For a moment he resented waking her, but it vanished in an instant as he griped her arm tightly and shook the young priestess out of her death-like sleep.

Her brow instantly furrowed, innately upset at being wakened. Her deep brown eyes opened and flicked for a moment like a candle, straining to see the cause of her terminated rest. When her eyes landed on him, they widened into deep pools of mud…staring, just staring.

He didn't take his eyes off her, and when she noticed this, she dropped hers to the ground in an instant. Feeling slightly discomfited he followed suit.

He kept his attention on ground level…pretending to be diverted by a cluster of moss-covered rocks while she struggled to sit up. The human tolerating, Tenseiga-wielding instinct inside him was screaming to his brain, **"Help her!"**. The _miko_ was obviously in pain, but his stupid, arrogant, egotistical, youkai nature stopped him from doing so.

"Sesshomaru…"

The demon flinched at his name. Turning his attention back to the priestess, he noticed that she had managed to pull herself to a sitting position, hugging her knees to her chest. For the first time he was able to get a good look at her. Her hair was in frizzy disarray. Her scarlet pants were soaked and splattered with mud and her once-white blouse was torn in several places. He dared to once again look intently at her eyes, and retreated immediately.

Her eyes burned with not anger or revengeful feelings as he had expected, but with a sorrow beyond anything he had ever seen. He had seen desolate eyes before: father's, mother's, Jaken's, Rin's…even Inuyasha's, but _never_ like this. It was a despondency that Sesshomaru couldn't describe.

Pulling out this state of superfluous pity, he responded to her indictment. "You know me?" he asked, to some extent taken aback that she knew his name.

Pulling her tousled hair behind her neck with a practiced hand, she replied. "Yes. You're Inuyasha's elder brother…or half-brother…whatever you prefer. You travel with that girl…Rin isn't it? We met once before on Mount_ Hakurei_."

More composed, he shrugged and brusquely retorted, "I remember."

There was then a lingering silence. Sesshomaru had no wish to respond further to her recollections of him, and he suspected that she was contemplating how to answer to his ephemeral remark. After a moment the priestess pulled herself to her feet, wincing and breathing sharply, evidence of her apparent affliction. Although her body was one of mere artifice, what would have been wounds to a human hurt her clay body all the same. There was an almost silent whistle in the air, and Sesshomaru looked up into the sky to find it sporting several soul collectors. They dove down to greet their mistress, for both priestess and collectors certainly relied on each other. Reaching her, they allowed her withering body to absorb the souls they carried. Fully revitalized, the priestess stood on her own and turned to face the demon.

"Thank you for your concern, no matter how clandestine Sesshomaru-_sama_. I apologize for the precious time I have cost you. It was unconsciously done."

As she turned to walk away, he breathed subconsciously, "_Miko_-_sama_…"

Startled, she turned around, and her eyes glimmered with an incandescent emotion that Sesshomaru could not name. Once again disconcerted, he turned around to leave the canyon. Once out, he paused but for a moment to recognize the solemn footsteps behind him…and carried on.


	4. Chapter 4

Kaede carefully placed another block of wood into the fire. Inuyasha and his group were expected back tonight, and that meant that she must prepare **a lot** of food. Shippo could eat three fish by himself, and the small fox demon was the least of her worries.

A small smile broke over her face, like a strained ray of sunshine in a stormy sky. She had never thought that she would again think of Inuyasha as an ally, since Kikyo's death (which she had thought was by Inuyasha's hand), she had resolved to loathe the _hanyou_ for the rest of eternity. Even now, he could easily get on her nerves, but underneath all that, they respected each other, even though they were both too proud to admit it.

Thinking of Kikyo made Kaede wince in pain. Her poor sister's suffering…no. That clay, look-alike doll was **not** her sister. Her sister had never hurt anyone in her life. Her sister carried no regrets or hatred in her heart. The real Kikyo, her loving _onee-sama_, had died fifty years ago, and nothing that half-baked witch Urasue conjured up could change that.

Back when Kikyo was alive, she and Kaede had been extraordinarily close. They were all each other had. Kikyo was disowned when she was fourteen for her refusal to enter and arranged marriage, and after Kikyo entered the holy shrine, Kaede had run away because of the beatings. They had been best friends, and then three people entered their lives and changed them irreversibly.

Inuyasha, Tsubaki, and Onigumo.

Inuyasha had fallen in love with Kikyo, Tsubaki had cursed their love, and Onigumo had sealed their fates. Perhaps the love that _hanyou_ and _miko_ had for each other should have never been, or perhaps it was simply destiny.

One more person had changed her sister, however. His identity was a mystery, but every summer, it started again.

First, would come the flowers. Kikyo's favorite flowers in the whole world were bellflowers, mostly because _Kikyo_ means _bellflower_. Big, beautiful bouquets of bellflowers would appear at the door in the middle of the night.

Every day in the summer, Kaede would feel a male presence follow them. She might never know if Kikyo had simply never felt it, or if she had ignored it out of the stranger's anonymity.


	5. Chapter 5

Jaken's patience was running out…fast.

Sesshomaru-_sama_ had suddenly left without any explanation at all, leaving his Jaken to baby-sit the little _pest_.

Jaken glared across the forest to where the child, Rin, was admiring some budding plants. Why did Sesshomaru-_sama_ insist on keeping her around? She only got in the way and slowed them down. Maybe once Naraku was defeated, Sesshomaru-_sama_ would finally drop this uncommon chivalry and leave the girl behind…this was what Jaken had been wishing from the start.

Surely, this human girl missed her own kind? Wasn't it disconcerting to her that she had had nearly no contact with the human world for nearly a year and a half?

Suddenly, Rin's downcast eyes snapped up, staring at a space behind Jaken's right ear. Turning around in fear, Jaken saw his lord cutting masterfully through the forest.

"Sesshomaru-_sama_!" Rin and Jaken called, elated, at the same time. Turning only briefly to stare at each other, their attention turned back to Sesshomaru. Rin bounded up from her seated position and started to run toward the _youkai_, but something she saw further into the forest stopped her cold. Jaken hobbled slowly over to the girl's side, straining to see what she was seeing. When he did, he almost fell over in shock.

Walking slowly behind Sesshomaru-_sama_, in a painful manner, was a human woman. She wore the tattered but recognizable clothing of a _miko_, a shrine priestess. Her hair was pulled away from her face, save a few jet-black strands that had escaped, framing her face. Her eyes were down, and the rest of her face was expressionless.

When Sesshomaru-_sama_ and the woman reached the camp, the dim firelight poorly illuminating their faces, all the explanation Sesshomaru-_sama _gave in regard to her presence was,

"This is Kikyo-_sama_."

Nothing more.

Sesshomaru-_sama _strode purposefully over to the biggest tree in sight, and went behind it to think, as he always did during the night. Jaken turned back to the woman. She seemed restless, glancing from side to side, and confused by the objects looming in the faint light. Finally, her gaze came to rest on Jaken, then on Rin.

Rin looked intently at the woman, and the woman stared keenly back. Finally, Rin cleared her throat and ventured,

"You're the miko who saved me on_ Mount Hakurei_?"

The woman smiled, almost faintly at first, but sweetly. "I remember you Rin_-chan."_

Jaken was instantly shocked by the ignominious familiarity that this woman used. Rin, however, possessed no such feelings toward this impropriety. She tore halfway across the camp, throwing herself lovingly into the woman's arms. In the firelight, Jaken could see that they were both crying.

_Great! He thought furiously. __Another__ worthless human girl!_


End file.
